"Snowballs 'n Scraps"

This one’s a biggie!

It’s also number 53 in my 2” series of strips and scraps. I’ve had the top made for some time now but wanted to get this one finished!

Sometimes when I put these tops in my shelf I am mildly disappointed in them, but by the time I get them back out and quilt them, I am fine with them again. That is how I felt about this one. While not a severe disappointment, I was sure that my snowballs weren’t as round as I thought they should have been - meaning I should have used a 2.5” corner square instead of the 2” I used (to create the corner).

I did a bunch of swirls and curls in this one. I want to keep improving this type of improv quilting.

When I first started quilting, I would not have believed that I would make a quilt with these colors. They were not what I thought I liked. Brown? To me it was “yucky”! However, I’ve changed a lot since then. My how I’ve changed. Now I will make one with browns just about as quickly as I will make something with brights and/or pastels. I like them all!

I did update the pattern and put it on the free patterns page.

I hope someone can use it!

Just a note about this border fabric -

It’s very old fabric! I found it in my stash - I believe it must have come from the lady whose stash we bought in 2015 - as I’m positive I wouldn’t have bought it for any reason.

But it turned out to be a perfect fit. I mean, perfect!

There’s a little history behind this backing. On a Facebook group I’m in (can’t remember which one), a lady was bemoaning the fact that she considered herself a hoarder of fat quarters because she counted something like 400 that she owned. She was really hard on herself!

While I acknowledge that it is a lot of fat quarters, that is just about 50 yards of fabric. If you make a typical queen size quilt it takes about 10-12 yards for the front and the back. That’s about 20-24 yards for a queen size quilt. So, in effect, she had enough FQ for about 2 1/2 queen size quilts. I don’t consider that being a hoarder.

That inspired this backing. I decided to cut up some of my yardage, since I don’t have many fat quarters, into fat quarters and make a backing - just to see how it would work out. I thought if someone truly felt like they had too many and they were embarrassed about it for some reason, they could make up some backings using them.

And what do I think?

I like it! I was afraid that I might somehow feel all those seams when I was quilting, but I didn’t notice the seams at all - at least not any more than any other backing I have. I often have pieced backings - but not usually pieced this “neatly”.

Anyway, I do consider this back a success! And it took 36 fat quarters!

I know, the neighbor’s blue tarp is a bit distracting - but I wasn’t willing to turn the quilt around just to get the back!

The quilt roll - this quilt, being massive, weighs what feels like a ton!

I used cotton batting, so it really is a heavy quilt.

And now you know! This is one of the things I’ve finished lately!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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